Earth Notes

This is Earth Notes.Thousands of visitors from all over the world come to the Colorado Plateau every year to see the area’s famed natural rock arches. But these geologic wonders can be fragile, with dozens of documented collapses since the 1970’s.

Forest thinning across northern Arizona is generating tons of small diameter wood and slash. Those byproducts have a limited sales market, so last year a team of researchers at Northern Arizona University began a pilot project in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service and the Arizona Department of Forestry.

Populations of desert-dwelling Antelope Jackrabbits have remained relatively stable over the years in southern Arizona. But that is not the case for their high elevation cousins, the Black-tailed Jackrabbit. Their numbers are declining across the southwestern U.S., including on the Colorado Plateau.

Mexican spotted owls are an iconic bird in the pine forests of the Southwest. They are also a threatened bird. On the Colorado Plateau, one of the most significant threats to owls are large, severe forest fires, which are becoming more frequent.

Most people are now highly aware of the enormous quantities of disintegrating plastics accumulating in lakes, rivers, and oceans all over the planet. But those unnatural materials aren’t only found in water.